Planting Guide

CLIMBERS Climbing plants, which can either be perennial or annual, are highly versatile decorative elements that soften the hard lines of garden architecture, provide attractive screening to walkways and fences and create lovely, dappled shading effects against the sun over balconies and terraces. They produce a wide range of flowers and foliage shapes, evergreen or autumn colours. Climbers make lovely contrasts to walls, pergolas, walkways, colonnades, arches and trellises.

Climbing plants can either be self-climbing or requiring support. There is such a wide variety available that we will limit our discussion to the more commonly-used perennials, which do not require annual re-planting. Perennials can be left alone to grow year on year, providing attractive camouflage and texture with minimal maintenance.

GRASSES

Among outdoor perennials, ornamental grasses stand out for their range of colours, heights and textures. They can be brightly-coloured or dark, pale or neutral. They can grow tall or small, or in minimal or dense foliage. Grasses are beautiful elements to create texture and movement in a garden.

Grasses are particularly attractive for the sounds and movement they produce. They rustle with the breeze and can fetchingly reflect the character of the breeze through their shape and stature. They provide the garden with strong, linear definition and offer superb luminescence. Their flowers and foliage create dramatic effects, especially when back-lit by the sun.

LIVING WALLS

'Living Green Walls' or 'Vertical Gardens' are a fashionable planting scheme for residential and commercial spaces. They are popular for both indoor and outdoor use. The stunning vista they provide make them increasingly sought by homeowners and businesses alike to decorate their interior and exterior environments. The hydroponic system used to grow a garden vertically is an eco-friendly technology that satisfies greening values. Pre-grown plants are positioned over the wall surface following your planting scheme and design, creating a breathtaking living green wall.

Green walls have been used successfully to provide breathtaking green surfaces for commercial and public spaces such as schools, hospitals, offices, retail outlets, hotel foyers, cafes and restaurants, courtyards, among others. They combine visual appeal with eco-friendliness and likewise function as boundary screening.

Green Walls offer aesthetically pleasing solutions to greening within a limited, often urban space, and offer fantastic environmental value. They can act as thermal insulation, creating a micro climate that decreases the so-called 'Urban Heat Island Effect', the increased temperature of urban air.

ARTIFICIAL GREEN WALLS

Artificial Green Walls provide alternative greening solutions and can be used to great effect for both interior and exterior spaces. Panels, which also include fire-rated options, are lightweight and are suitable for all surfaces.

Artificial green walls come in a wide range of panel styles to address each location's requirements. The panels measure 100cm by 100 cm (1m2) and can be arranged side by side for seamless coverage.

Please visit the VistaGreen website for more information on artificial green walls.

PRESERVED MOSS WALLS Preserved Moss Walls produce unique and interesting surface decoration using this natural, tactile material. They can be used for both interiors and exteriors, for either residential or commercial spaces. We likewise can come up with unique wall art panels or clever signage with preserved moss. The preserved moss panels measure 12mm MDF.

Please visit the VistaGreen website for more information on Preserved Moss Walls.

HERBACEOUS PLANTING

Herbaceous perennials are essential elements to any garden, with their colour effects and interest livening up your garden space from early spring to late autumn. In early winter, meanwhile, old seed heads and stems covered in frost look utterly stunning.

Herbaceous perennials come in a variety of colours, shapes and heights for a wealth of artistic choices. They are non-woody plants whose growth dies down annually except for the root systems which remain dormant until spring. Herbaceous perennials exhibit rapid growth over the season (an autumn planting yields blooms in early spring) for quick flowering and planting solutions

ROSESRoses are a traditional garden favourite through the centuries and occupy a lofty place among flowering plants. A thorough discussion of roses is beyond the scope of our handy guide, our aim is to describe how roses can accentuate a modern garden. Our scheme may not fit traditional conceptions of rose planting, in one planting bed strictly by variety. Rather, we prefer to incorporate them with other plants in mixed borders for colour and scent effects during summer.

SHRUBS Shrubs are usually in the first line of sight in a garden. They are deciduous or evergreen woody plants standing less than 5 m high (15 ft), smaller than ornamental trees but taller than ground-covering plants. They are popular garden elements for their brightly-coloured and well-defined leaves. Shrubs offer numerous choices for planting, available in a variety of sizes, colours, shapes and heights.

TREES Trees are a highly-valued element to any garden scheme, addressing aesthetic as well as functional and environmental purposes. They provide height, structure, colour, texture, flowers and fruits, and sustain the habitat for wildlife.

It is important to carefully consider your tree selection and their placement in your garden space. Some trees planted near buildings may grow too large and cause structural damage. Others may block the natural light reaching buildings and windows. You must also be mindful of drainage problems and potential intrusions into neighbours' spaces. Planting the right trees for your space can avoid these problems and allow you to admire and enjoy the many rewards of having beautiful trees in your garden.